Interview with Dana Jones, Founder & Director of Accessadoor

Just over a month ago, I received a text message from a former student of mine who I met during my days as the Associate Director of the Academic Resource Center at Georgetown University (GU’s disability support office). She shared the website for Accessadoor, a product that can be attached to automatic push button doors, to allow users to open the door via an app on their phone. We were both super excited to see this innovation. For my former student, the excitement was personal. She is a wheelchair user and she is unable to push the blue buttons that are supposed to assist people with disabilities to open doors. When she was living on Georgetown’s campus, we were able to install clickers (think: garage door opener) to allow students who could not use the blue push buttons to instead use a clicker to open the doors. The type of technology that Accessadoor has created would have really helped because so many people rely on their phones as a key piece of assistive technology.

I connected with Dana Jones, the creator of Accessador, and shared my excitement. I also had an opportunity to learn a bit more about her and her motivation for developing this product. For Dana, the development of this product is also personal. Dana is a wheelchair user who also has a hard time using blue push buttons to open doors. That’s what motivated her to develop a product to assist people with disabilities in gaining access. I interviewed Dana to learn more about her and Accessador:

Tell us a little bit about yourself. 

My name is Dana Jones and I am 21 years old. I am a native to Dutchess County, NY where I  currently attend Marist College majoring in Business Administration with a concentration in Entrepreneurship. Prior to going to Marist I graduated from Dutchess Community College with an Associates in Business Administration. I love spending my free time with my two rescue dogs, Tanner and Sky, along with friends and family.

Why did you start Accessadoor? What issues are you hoping to address?

I started Accessadoor after struggling with accessibility myself. When I first started college, it was really the first time I was able to venture off on my own and be more independent. One thing that constantly got in my way throughout the day was opening doors. The current ADA door technology did not work for me due to the level of strength you need to activate the buttons along with poor placement of the buttons. One day I was stuck in a building with nobody around to help me. I had my phone and went to text a friend to come help me and that’s when I had the realization moment of “I should be able to use my phone to open the door verses using it to summon help.” It would allow me to be more independent and that is where it all began. With the support of Dutchess Community College and various other individuals we were able to get up and running with this idea to solve entrance obstacles for those with disabilities. 

What’s the plan for Accessador moving forward? 

We are currently about to enter beta testing. Towards the end of October we will have Accessadoor installed in over 150 doors throughout Dutchess County. We have 3 schools and our county government enrolled in the test. We anticipate to roll out to the general market by January 1st. 

How can people learn more about Accessador and keep up with what you are doing? 

To stay informed about Accessadoor and our progress people can sign up for our mailing list at www.accessadoor.com. We will be sending out periodic updates along with events we will be attending. Pre-orders are now being accepted, so if anyone is looking to add Accessadoor to their establishments they can go on over and place the pre-order.

Check out Accessadoor’s promo here: